Singapore

Breakfast in Singapore

I took JetStar from Taipei to Singapore. They are an okay airline, but the staff seemed really lackadaisical. We loaded up on the plane and then waited more than a half hour before they finally closed the door and we left the gate. The flight was basically uneventful. It was kinda long about 4 hours during which I mostly read from The Count of Monte Cristo.

Previously I had made some friends on the internet from Singapore. This turned out to be a great bonus. Jeannie and KC are both locals that live and work in Singapore. They met me when my flight landed just after midnight. KC has a car so he was able to drive me into town, saving me a hefty taxi fee. KC is a programmer and Jeannie works in the administration at a hospital. Singapore seemed to have a lot of medical facilities and I think a lot of people go there for medical tourism.

Merlion, the symbol of Singapore

Before we went to my hostel, my hosts wanted me to try some local food. So we went to a street cafe and I tried some Prata. It is kind of like a pancake thing that you can get with cheese or mushrooms or onions. I liked it. I am getting better about trying Asian foods.

They told me that my hostel was kinda close to the red light district. But when they took me there it seemed like an okay place. It was close to the MRT and there were a lot of backpacker hostels nearby. I got into my hostel room and turned in after a long day of travel from Yilan to Singapore.

The next morning Jeannie met me at my hostel. We headed toward Sentosa island on the MRT. First we stopped at a cafe in the mall. We had some coffee and a kind of toasted bread with some butter and spices inside. It is called Kaya butter toast and its a local favorite in Singapore. Next we took the monorail into Sentosa island.

Sentosa island is a kind of resort island at the bottom of Singapore. It is kind of like one big Disney park. There is actually a Universal studios there. The rest of the island is full of beaches, imax theater type shows, underwater aquariums, adventure rides and family type activities. Everything on this island is very expensive so I didn't do any of the family stuff. My main interest was in a fort on the end of the island.

During World War 2 there was an important battle in Singapore. The British built a huge expensive fortress here as the waters around Singapore were the fastest way between the Indian ocean and the Pacific. This geographical location is why Singapore has been so important in history. The British fortified the island for a sea invasion but were not sufficiently ready for an attack from the Malaysian mainland. At the same time the Japanese were bombarding Pearl Harbor they were also invading Malaysia. In a few months they were on the shore facing Singapore. The British were not sufficiently prepared and a battle ensued in which the Brits had to surrender the island. This is the single biggest surrender in British history. This must have been a dark time because it was only a few months after Pearl Harbor and the British were just kicked out of their strategic location in Singapore. The soldiers that surrendered were put in a dismal POW camp and had to wait out the end of the war in appalling conditions.

Anyways, my interest was in a fort because they had a museum there now. There are several buildings with lots of artifacts and displays about the history of Singapore during the war. It was kind of nerdy but really interesting to me.

Sentosa Monorail

Jeannie had to go meet some friends, so I walked around Sentosa island for a bit and then headed into the city. I went to Chinatown to see what it was like. It was an okay place, but after living in Taiwan Chinatowns aren't too interesting. Next I went to Fort Canning park. This is on a big hill in the middle of downtown. This is where the British command was located and it is where they made the decision to surrender to the Japanese. There is another museum here. After that I headed down to Orchard road. This is a very famous road because there are tons of big malls on this road. Everywhere people are shopping. I went to a couple of malls to see what they have. I found an English book store and found a copy of the The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest for only about $12 USD. I am almost done with Count of Monte Cristo, so I am excited to read that book next.

I met up with Jeannie and KC and we went into downtown to have dinner. We went to this cool gallery of shops next to an old church. We decided to have some Western food and they treated me to a good juicy Hamburger at an Australian restaurant called Hog's Breath. Afterwards we went to a series of museums that were having a special night art show. Everywhere there were artists doing interesting things. In front of one building they had a four story temporary structure with artists walking around putting big letters on display. People were sending SMS's to a special number and the artists were putting the text messages on a huge display. The museums were packed full of people and we looked at the displays. We didn't stay too long though, we were all a bit burned out from a long hot day.

We drove around Singapore a bit but the traffic was messed up. They were doing a rehearsal for the Singapore National Day celebrations in a few weeks. We headed back toward my hostel and I fell asleep easily.

White Tiger

The next day we went to the Singapore Zoo. I was really lucky because Jeannie can get a free pass to the zoo from her work. Singapore has a world famous zoo. I was mainly interested in seeing the animals from southeast Asia. We saw so many animals that I lost count. I saw a Komodo dragon for the first time. It was huge, like a dinosaur. We also saw elephants, tigers, jaguars, polar bears and snakes. The zoo was very big and we didn't have time to do it all. It was very hot and muggy and they had a Ben & Jerry's so we all had a delicious scoop of ice cream.

Komodo Dragon

It was my last night in Singapore and I was kinda sad to leave my friends and hosts. We went to a place called the Esplanade in downtown Singapore. The area was very nice and classy. There was an opera house and lots of expensive hotels. I think one night in one of those hotels would cost more than my entire budget for this whole trip. The esplanade is a walk front along the harbor. It is extremely clean and modern. There was a stage set up and there were musicians. There were also stages with Chinese puppet theater and another stage with a Chinese opera. We walked down to see a giant sculpture of a lion fountain. It is called the Merlion and it is like a symbol for Singapore.

After that we drove around a bit to see some more sights. They took me to Little India. That neighborhood was really just like India. The streets were packed with people and there were so many different Indian shops and restaurants. Then they drove me thru the red light district. That was quite eye-opening. I won't say much about that, but you can imagine what a red light district in Asia might be like haha.

Then we headed back to my hostel and I packed up and got ready for the next day. I would be going into Malaysia to the old colonial town of Melaka.